The invention concerns apparatus for binding loose sheets into binding covers provided at their backs with a thermoplastic adhesive, said apparatus comprising a frame and two parallel support walls that together form an input shaft to adjust the binding covers filled with the sheets, said shaft being defined at the bottom and during binding by a heating plate, and further comprising a deposition base to remove the finished, bound folder unit consisting of binding covers and sheets.
Such binding apparatus illustratively is described in the German patent 35 14 222. It comprises a frame with an input shaft formed by two parallel Vertical support walls. One support wall is stationary in the frame, the other is displaceably supported, namely being movable toward and away from the stationary one. In this manner the spacing between the two support walls can be mutually adjusted to maintain their parallel position.
The input shaft is defined underneath the adjustment zone of the displaceable support wall by a heating plate. This heating plate consists of an upper-side deposition base and an electric heater allowing to raise the deposition base to about 200.degree. C. The heating plate is stationary.
In order to make a book or a notebook, first a stack of papers or also of plastic foils is formed which then is inserted into a binding cover. Such binding covers consist of a back with a joint to integrate the binding sides and further of a strip of hot-melt adhesive deposited on the inside of the back. When binding, the whole binding cover with the inserted sheet is introduced into the input shaft in such manner that the outside of the back comes to rest on the heating plate. Then the displaceable support wall is moved toward the stationary support wall in order that the whole binding cover retain its vertical position during binding. Next the heater plate is heated electrically to a temperature higher than the melting point of the hot-melt strip. This strip then softens and accordingly the sheets inserted into the whole binding cover sink by their lower edges into the strip of hot-melt adhesive and are wetted in the process. After a specified time the bound unit consisting of binding cover and sheets is removed from the binding apparatus and for that purpose the displaceable support wall is retracted. Thereupon the bound unit is either placed with the back facing down on a separate cooling stand or else, for instance in the case of the binding apparatus of the German patent 35 14 222 it is deposited--again with the back down--on a deposition base integrated into the binding apparatus where this bound unit can cool. The strip of hot melt solidifies again and hard binding of the sheets into the whole binding cover has thus been achieved.
The known binding apparatus suffer from the operational drawback that following binding, the bound units must be removed from the apparatus and be carried to a special deposition base. It is the object of the invention therefore to create a binding apparatus permitting easy cooling of the finished bound unit consisting of the binding cover and sheets.
This problem is solved by the invention for binding apparatus of the above species in that the heating plate and the deposition base are supported in movable manner in the frame in such a way that they can be alternatingly displaced into or out of the zone of the input shaft.